Steel Wing had little to no experience with complex manipulations of the electronic variety; the best he’d ever done was rebuilding a radio and getting a fridge to function. Still anything was worth a try, and he did know when to stop before it was too late. Searching through his bag for anything to remove the panel from the wall Steel Wing found the golden banded key card he’d picked up without realizing.

“It can’t be that simple.” Steel Wing complained aloud to the universe in general. He was almost reluctant to try it, for fear of it really being so easy. He quickly swiped the card and waited. There was silence for a while and there was a click and hissing sound shortly after. The sound of machinery forcing metal against metal dominated the small corridor. Then the horrible grinding screech of a Stable door being pulled open caused Steel Wing to lie down with his hooves over his ears.

This time Steel Wing decided to be angry at Discord. The futility of trying to get the spirit of chaos feel bad for him made Steel Wing laugh in his head while he cowered from the sound of the sliding door.

When the noise finally ended and the echoes died away, Steel Wing stood up and shook away the ringing in his head. The corridor on the other side of the door looked quite a bit like a Stable. Compared to Mexicolt’s other Stables this one looked intact and fairly clean; save for the dust that had settled on everything the slavers hadn’t touched, so there was a lot of dust.

The dust on the floor did make it easy to navigate the halls by following the concentration of hoof prints. Steel Wing was surprised to find a number of testing labs that had been abandoned mid experiment. When he stopped by one room designated Megaspell Testing Chamber Steel Wing sent a silent prayer to Celestia and Luna hoping that whichever pony had worked in that room hadn’t left a half finished Balefire bomb sitting in an abandoned lab. He prayed to the Princesses instead of Discord knowing full well he would find it hilarious to have some random megaspell sitting in said room.

He also stopped by a door labeled ‘Stable-Tec Offices” Weapons aside Steel Wing knew better than to think Stable-Tec hadn’t designed anything worth having two hundred years in the future. The active hall lighting made him slightly more hopeful the doors in here still worked.

He tried to open the door which produced a buzzing when he did. He was about to damn the door for getting his hopes up when a panel next to the door started flashing. The flashing guided his attention to another keycard slot. Taking back his yet to be vocalized curses Steel Wing swiped the gold banded card in and was rewarded with a beep as the door slid open with a pneumatic hiss.

Inside where six desks two of which had lamps turned on. Steel Wing supposed the light bulbs were some super secret Stable-Tec project to create a permanent sun inside since the dust told him nopony had touched this room in two hundred years. Steel Wing went around and poked through the desks for anything interesting. The first few desks had nothing of use except maybe the pencils. The fifth desk however held a sealed yellow envelope that had been stamped: High Priority - Confidential. Somepony hadn’t read his mail. Steel Wing carefully unsealed the secret the envelope to take a peek at the secrets inside. What he found inside was a letter addressed to a Sergeant Major Staples. There was nothing too fascinating in the letter but the other contents made Steel Wing’s eyes go wide. The plans for a new model of Stable-Tec Pip-buck had been sent to an underground research facility before the end of the war. They had sat unseen by anypony’s eyes for two-hundred years. Worth millions of bits all those years ago these schematics were now priceless. Steel Wing could for a moment empathize with the Steel Ranger desire to protect old world technology. That feeling quickly faded when he remembered what they did to anypony who had something their elder wanted. He carefully put the schematics back in their container, which Steel Wing surmised was woefully inadequate for its contents.

Stable-Tec designed all sorts of magical storage devices in conjunction with MWT and MAS it was ridiculous to think they would actually send mail in anything else. So Steel Wing set about hunting for one of those amazing containers while also searching for any other Stable-Tec treasures. The door marked “Equipment Storage” seemed a probable place to store such items. Steel Wing slid his card into the wall slot with a smile as the door slid aside at his discretion. He imagined this was what it felt like to be a unicorn at any other task.

Janitorial supplies and utility barding was most of the contents of this room. On the far wall hung: A Pip-buck, armored barding, and what Steel Wing hoped was a storage device, if not it was a very oddly shaped bomb. The whole assortment made Steel Wing think somepony was planning for a career in front line package delivery. He laughed as he took down the box and opened it. There was a nine millimeter gun and several clips of ammo, more or less confirming Steel Wing’s suspicion of the future goals of their owner.

He dumped out the contents and placed the yellow envelope carefully inside. When he snapped it shut a magical humming told Steel Wing it was active. Putting the magic case in his saddlebag he turned back to the Pip-buck. During his military career he’d never really relied much on his Power Armors targeting spells since he was confident enough in his combat prowess. It also annoyed him slightly when it told him what his chances of hitting were, he always reminded himself that those were a spells chance of hitting with his weapons. A Pip-buck might not serve the purpose of armor but it had a thousand and one other uses. One he had been thinking about since the megaspell chamber was the Geiger Counter. If the area around that door was badly irradiated he wouldn’t know until his brain tumor burst his skull. He’d also heard stories of certain models of Pip-bucks malfunctioning and displaying all its warnings while pony’s slept making them lose a lot of sleep. He had to imagine that somewhere in here was the equipment for removing a Pip-buck, which in itself was another almost invaluable asset.

Giving in to his worries Steel Wing took the Pip-buck down from its wall hook and snapped it around his left foreleg. It instantly came to life and a dozen different start up programs started running through his field of vision. In his armor this had all been external being limited to the visor of the helmet. This was grade-A headache inducing stuff. He looked away and closed his eyes trying to escape the messages. The followed his vision and danced across the inside of his eyelids. The scrolling lines of text disappeared one after the other until only a few initial diagnostics messages appeared. Once the high speed letters and numbers had gone away Steel Wing opened eyes that had been closed in vain. He looked down at the display screen as the last of the messages left his vision. It made the headaches worse when at the last second, Steel Wing unconsciously focused through the floating text to the physical screen. He managed to do it but his vision split in two directions momentarily.

Steel Wing’s mind forced his body to the floor to give time to correct his eyes.

When his face was back in order Steel Wing chanced another glance at the lit Pip-buck display. He raised an eyebrow when he read the messages:

> Species: Unknown - Please connect Stable-Tec device to a Stable-Tec information access terminal to update this device’s Species Database

> Gender: Male

> Vitals: Above Average

> Overall Wellness: Good

> Please review the Stable-Tec Terms of Use before operating this device. From Stable-Tec to you have a nice life.

Steel Wing rolled his eyes and pressed yes, still wondering why it didn’t know he was a pegasus and quite frankly not caring. As soon as the “working” screen of the Pip-buck came up a few red warnings came up causing Steel Wing to try and run away. He gave up quickly and read them since they were much less active than the loading sequences. Apparently he had foreign objects lodged in his chest. He rubbed his chest and was reminded of the itch the shotgun had given him. True he hadn’t bothered to clean up the wounds before drinking a healing potion, but the shot had punctured his coat in so few places and hadn’t even hurt all that much he didn’t think much of it.

Flechette rounds probably. Those were the only things Steel Wing could think of that would produce so many pieces from so few penetrations. The other two messages had to do with the foreign objects in question fusing with such and such.

Having some experience with Stable-Tec medical technology Steel Wing turned off the medical diagnostics spell.

“I can’t imagine how much it would have sucked if Stable-Tec hadn’t put in a way to shut stuff like that off. Woulda driven ponies crazy.” Steel Wing chuckled as he exited the janitor’s closet.

His ears shot up when he heard or could have sworn he’d heard a voice coming through speakers. It continued for a while and stopped, and picked back up and stopped again. He didn’t think the sound had been there before but maybe he was just now noticing it. There could have been a radio left on in some room in here, it wouldn’t surprise him based on how well designed most products were built back then. Eventually it stopped all together. Steel Wing shrugged and moved on to find the Pip-buck removal tools. He was very pleased to find in a locked drawer somepony had conveniently labeled a case just for him: “Pip-buck Master Key.”

On it was a note that read,

To Bartholomule

Alright jackass if you lose this one I’ll skin your ugly brown hide and put it in front of my fire place. Got it? Damn well better.

From the desk of,

Chief Supervisor Trail Mix

The picture on the desk, Steel Wing noted, was of a donkey with his wife and child. The jackass in question was in fact an ass. Like the story of the wingless griffon, Steel Wing was pretty sure that this letter wouldn’t actually fly back then.

After he had searched through the rest of the desk and picked up a few bits Steel Wing was back out in the hall and continued down along the trail of hoofprints. As he went along a small arrow appeared at the top of his field of vision. Ah yes, the mystical and impossible to comprehend navigation and guidance spell. You flew me into the face of a mountain if I recall. Steel Wing glared at the reminder of high altitude pain before deciding that it wouldn’t hurt to bump into a wall while walking. He left it on.

Again came the sound of an amplified voice, completely unintelligible through the halls and farther away this time.

Steel Wing happened to notice the time floating in the top right of his eyes. 0300 MST

Holy hell have I really been down here that long? With no why of confirming by sunlight or lack thereof what time it really was. As Steel Wing thought back he realized just how long the walk the entrance to the Stable-Tec offices had been. It wasn’t just a couple labs here and there now that he thought of it he had passed dozens of them and they weren’t close together.

Damn

To top off the revelations for the night as he continued, Steel Wing also realized he still didn’t feel like sleeping. He was a little hungry. He stopped in his tracks. He hadn’t eaten since the unicorn academy and he still didn’t need to. After the events of the last couple days he could accept that happy thoughts and adrenaline had kept him going this long. He expected the crash to come any day, but not eating was another matter all together. Soldiers didn’t always need sleep, but every soldier should need nourishment. A familiar tingling in his chest told him he’d need to go to the moon to address this issue. He sighed sadly for the loss of his appetite and continued on.

As he walked through the halls, yet a third problem presented itself. If he couldn’t sleep he couldn’t dream, so he couldn’t complain to the Nightmare about how he didn’t eat or sleep.

If it weren’t for the arrow running through his vision he would have missed the door where the trail of hoof prints ended.

He snapped back to the present when the green arrow raced past his eyes. The door before him was slightly larger than the others. On the door written in big white letters was:

Military Equipment Storage

Oh yes, Steel Wing rubbed his hooves together deviously This is how it should be.

----

It took Steel Wing a few minutes to stop marveling at the door before him.

When he pulled himself back together he quickly hunted down the card slot. There wasn’t one. Steel Wing’s excitement came crashing down around him.

Of all the terrible things that could have happened down here, according to Steel Wing at least, this was The. Worst. Possible. Thing.

The distraught pegasus turned into a grossly over-sized colt as he threw himself at the door in a manner very close to a tantrum.

“Please don’t do this to me!” He pleaded banging his hooves on the door. While he was flailing against it Steel Wing hit a switch on the door that looked very much like it was just lighting built into the door. Steel Wing opened his eyes in alarm as the world began to part before him.

He facehoofed when he realized the door’s top and bottom half were separating.

Wait Steel Wing did a double take when he realized the door was opening. There is something to that whining thing fillies do. He thought with a grin.

The switch was much more pronounced as the inner workings of the door became exposed. The switch was at the very center of where the doors upper and lower half met and activated a latch that held the door closed. It wasn’t even locked. Fuck you universe.

Steel Wing confidently marched through the open door and the universe promptly offered its own ‘fuck you’ in return.

The massive, talking, automated minitanks known as Securitron MK II was a good guard robot. Sturdy in construction, built with the best of what the MWT and MAS could come up with together; put into one of the most advanced robots built before the apocalypse.

Now one of these monstrosities with minigun, rocket launcher and chest-mounted plasma canon would considered by most, more than enough to guard a warehouse. If somepony were to take into account the potential collateral damage caused by one of these performing it’s “duties” having more than one in a closed space would be irresponsible. It would make sense then that a room with nothing somepony could use as cover would only need turrets. No matter how big the room was.

The universe, as Steel Wing learned, is a vengeful thing that must always one up any insults it perceives.

Four Securitrons sat in each corner of the room. Each of these sat under a high yield energy turret. In the middle of the room was something that could only be described as: Like above, but bigger.

Steel Wing was unfortunately just far enough in the room that he couldn’t turn and run, before the room turned him into blood and glowing goo.

Instead of opening fire the Securitron behemoth rolled forward slowly. In a voice that reminded him of the giant speakers in Mexicolt City’s nightclubs it said, PLEASE REMAIN STILL WHILE I SCAN FOR VALID IDENTIFICATION.

Steel Wing’s ears folded back, more from the volume than the fact that he didn’t know as he had a valid ID. Uttering a short prayer to anything that would hear him Steel Wing slowly retrieved the gold banded card from his bag and presented it to the massive war machine. A green light passed over his body, and when it passed over the card held in his teeth it gave him a slight shock. He didn’t know if that was good or bad and his muscles tightened in anticipation of whatever was going to happen next.

IDENTIFICATION RECOGNIZED. the sound of multiple energy weapons powering down filled the large room and Steel Wing’s body almost sagged as the tension he felt melted away. GOOD DAY MR. STAPLES. YOUR LAST VISIT WAS TWENTYSEVEN DAYS AGO. DO YOU HAVE GUESTS?

Steel Wing stood back up and looked carefully around the room worrying that he could somehow get this wrong and be killed for it. Clearing his throat he said, “No, I do not have any guests.”

SCANNING FOR ADDITIONAL LIVING ENTITIES. SCANNING FOR ZEBRA STEALTH SPELLS. The Securitron behemoth was silent a moment making Steel Wing worry that it was actually having to decide if something it detected was somewhere it shouldn’t be. When his EFS told him that everything was still non-hostile he tried to reign in his rapid breathing. NO INTRUDERS DETECTED. HAVE A GOOD DAY SIR. With that the Securitron rolled back to the center of the room and resumed watching the door.

Out of sheer paranoia Steel Wing kept the golden savior card facing the Securitron until he was well on the other side of the room.

On the other side of the room opposite the only entrance was a simple metal door. Steel Wing opened it without trouble. Reasonably speaking anything that entered that room wouldn’t make it through without its own robot army so having an unsecured door wasn’t such a big deal.

Hours after entering Steel Wing expected more unnecessary walking, which is why he was surprised to find a room with three doors for counting the one he had entered through. One straight ahead and two to the left and right. Above the door on his left was a green bar casting its sickly lighting on the room with a pink squiggly line running across it. The door ahead of him was a dull grey and had a targeting reticle adorning it. The third and final door had a tan bar with tracks that belonged on a tank on it. Steel Wing shrugged and chose to keep moving forward.

Opening the reticle door Steel Wing was greeted by a wall of darkness. As soon as he opened the door a hum started up from somewhere deep inside the room. In the next instant lights began coming on row by row revealing something that made Steel Wing glad he’d come alone. He was a little embarrassed when he felt his stallionhood peeking out of its sheath and he had to fight to keep his wings down. He quickly regained composure and let his jaw hang open instead.

Rows of shelves of racked weapons filled the room for about fifty yards in each direction. The first few rows had been emptied; by the slavers Steel Wing guessed. That still left a number of full rows Steel Wing didn’t bother to count as he walked past them.

The smile on face developed rapidly into a deep victorious laugh, “Oh yes, I WIN!” He shouted dancing on his hind legs. He still didn’t know exactly what ‘EERFMSD: 2’ meant and he couldn’t care less.

His thoughts were racing, he couldn’t decide what he was going to do with all of this. The slavers had used some and sold others but even they hadn’t found a way to use all of these. He didn’t even question how he was going to move all of this, as that was something belonging in reality. Steel Wing was far from reality as he danced through the aisles. He had no fondness for firearms in general, but this was still a beautiful thing. He would find a way to make sure they were put to a good use. At the back of the room were lockers filled with cases of grenades. The last row of weapons had been high caliber rifles. Steel Wing also found several walk-in vaults on the back wall. With his master card that could take him anywhere Steel Wing entered the first. This is where, quite literally the tons of ammunition for all the weapons were stored. They were organized by the type of weapon they were for, and each section had all the different kinds of ammo. From high impact slugs to explosive rounds, armor piercing bullets to incendiary shells. It was all here.

Steel Wing could no longer contain his excitement and decided to run it off. He couldn’t decide where he should run to so he ran in circles for a while before remembering he had friends that needed to see this as well. With his now boundless energy he raced out of the weapons locker stopping briefly to stare at the other two doors. He quickly decided that he couldn’t handle any more surprises right now and they’d be best saved for later. He took off in a gallop again before he saw the Securitron that dominated the middle of the room. His wings fluttered in frustration at the interruption to his speed.

He slowly sauntered past the robot and as he was half way to the exit it said, HAVE A NICE DAY SIR.

If ever there were instructions Steel Wing hadn’t needed to hear twice it was that. “Goodbye. I shall return.” He said with a smile that went unappreciated by the emotionless robot.

As soon as he was out the door his was back into a gallop racing back the way he’d come wanting to make better time than the hours this trip had taken.

--------------------------------------

“Twenty-five minutes.” Steel Wing panted as he climbed back up the stairs to the surface. He’d managed to turn a three hour power-walk into a twenty-five minute sprint. He’d never felt more alive in his life. Except the first time he and his sister had- Nope, now isn’t the time.

Late morning light poured through the open door ahead of him. As Steel Wing felt the dry outside air hit his lungs he sat down and breathed a sigh of relief. Remembering he still had friends to inform of his still living status he headed off back towards the town entrance, to the house he’d left them in.

He saw the open doorway he’d made yesterday and he could hear conversation coming from inside.

“Hey! You’ll never guess what I found!” He cried as he ran through the doorway and slid to a stop. His nose bumped into the barrel of a gun that was attached to the power armor of a Steel Ranger. “Just go around ruining everypony’s fun.” He said through gritted teeth his bounding joy turning into silent fury.

The passionate hatred Steel Wing had for the Steel Rangers was washed away when he started looking around the room for his friends. “Where the fuck are they?” He demanded of the suit of power armor in front of him. There were seven other Steel Rangers in the room and they had all trained their weapons on him the moment he’d entered the building. It mattered little to Steel Wing as he asserted his dominance over the one pony in front of him.

“Uh- they, I mmmmmm...” The Steel Ranger shrunk away from the large infuriated pegasus. The sight would have appeared to anypony watching quite funny. Despite his size, he was unarmed and was wearing shredded barding that had at one point served as armor. Yet a pony sized weapon was cowering away from its opponent.

It didn’t take long for somepony with more assertiveness to step in between Steel Wing and his would-be victim of interrogation. “You, will not speak unless spoken to pegasus. As for your friends, they are unharmed and will remain that way so long as you cooperate.”

Steel Wing knew he’d just been introduced to the pony in charge, a buck by the sound of its voice. With his friends safety on the line Steel Wing decided now wasn’t the time to say something funny. Instead he said, “Deal.”

----

Some questioning and threatening later, the Steel Ranger Paladin Fairbreeze had gotten little to nothing out of the pegasus.

In some way the paladin did appreciate Steel Wing’s sense of humor when he took some time to answer the question exactly how it was asked and nothing more. Steel Wing saw this too and even as he was being interrogated over his discoveries the two more or less enjoyed the conversation.

With a sigh of mock frustration Fairbreeze asked, “So when you found the Stable-Tec offices what did you do?”

“Looked around.” Steel Wing nodded in agreement with himself.

“And what did you find?”

“Pencils, pictures, some mail, and a janitor’s closet.” The mail he had referred two was the oh so precious schematics he’d put hidden in the Stable-Tec magical storage device. Knowing the Steel Rangers it would be one of the first things they found, but if they didn’t Steel Wing wasn’t about to tell them it was there.

“Right, and so after that where did you go?”

“Back into the hallway.”

“And where did you go from there.” Paladin Fairbreeze pretended to be getting impatient.

“To the door I was looking for.” Steel Wing relented, rewarding the Steel Ranger for his patience thus far.

“Did you open it?”

“Yes.”

“And what was inside?”

“A room with a robot and a turret.” And four other robots and three other turrets. Steel Wing mused to himself.

“Anything else?”

“There was a door.”

“And you opened that?”

“Yes.”

“On the other side you found-” Fairbreeze let him finish his sentence.

“Three more doors.”

The paladin was silent a moment searching for some hint that he was about to go into an infinite door loop. Steel Wing gave him a straight and serious look. “Did you open any of those three doors?”

“Yes, one.”

“And what was on the other side of that door?”

“Guns.”

“Guns? How many guns?”

“More than one hundred.”

“What kind.”

“Pistols, rifles, shotguns.”

“So standard firearms. No energy weapons?”

“Not a one.”

At last Paladin Fairbreeze was out of questions. His initial remark forgotten by both he stepped back and sighed. “Show us.”

“Show me my friends and we can go from there.” Steel Wing was now at the negotiating phase from his point of view. Running around in the halls he’d gotten lost a few times in his haste. Trails now went off in all sorts of directions, and he knew they could be down there an entire day if they didn’t have his guidance.

“Very well, come with me.”

The Steel Ranger’s were all at ease around Steel Wing. Since he was unarmed they had assumed he preferred hoof to hoof combat. This was true, but it didn’t stop the fact that he had magically augmented wings. Fairbreeze had assumed ‘Steel Wing’ was the pegasus’ birth name and nothing else.

Steel Wing followed the paladin across the street flanked on either side by two other Steel Rangers, and the one he had been about to bring his wrath down upon brought up the rear. Even if they didn’t think of him as a threat, they still considered him a valuable asset; for the time being at least.

Fairbreeze stepped to one side of the door and let Steel Wing go in ahead. In the room surrounded by several emptied bottles of alcohol and wrappers from packaged rations sat Corona, Milly, and Quickie. There were playing poker gambling over the last of their food. Quickie was ahead by a mile and had taken to using some of her food as a booster so she could actually sit above the table.

Corona who was facing the door was the first to react to his entrance. “Hey! You shon of a mule we all thought you died.” She giggled when she realized she was intoxicated. She tried to stealthily pass a box of Sugar Applebombs over to Quickie failing miserably. Quickie took them with a triumphant grin on her face.

“So,” Quickie spoke up next, with a small hiccup. “Did you find something to mount down there?” She was joined by Corona in stifled snickering.

“Uh Corona, you gave alcohol to a filly.”

A Steel Ranger that Steel Wing had been oblivious to standing on one side of the door informed him, “She lost a bet to the kid. Instead of a buck to the crotch the griffon fetched her some top-shelf stuff.”

Steel Wing responded with, “Holy crap where’d you come from?” Remembering that he was focused on what Corona had done he didn’t wait for an answer to the question. “Corona where’s Autumn Heart and- uh, The teal one.”

“Back room. Bedroom. Both asleep. Not having sex.” Milly replied before Corona could formulate a response.

The once manic mare was now much more sedated, maybe even a little depressed. She was by far the most sober of the three.

“So you’re all okay?”

“Well, yeah I guess.” Corona said, “Took a few bullets from some initiate or another, bad aim and low powered weapons didn’t make for a good enough impact. Speaking of we need to get you into some armor.

“Right, well I found the weapons.”

“You did!” She sat up from the table, cards and food spilled everywhere. “How many, what kind?”

“Over a hundred, and ‘guns’ guns not energy weapons.”

“Oh, sweet. What are you going to do with them?”

She had apparently forgotten that the Steel Rangers didn’t like to share, “Probably hand them over to the Steel Rangers so they don’t off all of us.”

“They wouldn’t do that.” She said coming up and punching him in the shoulder. She stopped smiling a moment, “Oh yeah, they would do that.” Remembering her anger at being held captive she shot the guard pony in the room a dirty look. The Steel Ranger shifted a little, uncomfortably.

Turning back to Steel Wing she continued, “Did you know they were shouting into the tunnels for you to come out?”

“They were?” Steel Wing rubbed his chin and remembered the voice he couldn’t actually locate. “That makes sense.” He admitted.

“Yeah, after my second bottle that- thing over there,” She pointed towards Quickie, “Actually had me convinced you’d found some ghoul down there that’d been in heat for two centuries and you were just wearing her out for seven hours.”

“Alrighty then, ew.” He intoned, “I don’t think I’d ever put anything attached to my body into a ghoul. And another thing-” He was interrupted.

“Awwww, ghouls need love too.” Throwing her arms around him the inebriated griffon hung from his neck, “So do griffons.” She winked seductively at him.

“Yeah remember when we were talking and I said I wanted to stop in case we ever got drunk together.”

“Yeah?” She giggled.

“Well, this confirms that we didn’t stop talking about it soon enough, the other problem is that I haven’t been drinking.”

“I get it, too many eyes and ears. We can wait till we’re back in Sky Fall. My room is soundproof.” The bubbly griffon let go of him and flew haphazardly back to the table.

“She’s a scary drunk.” Fairbreeze muttered behind Steel Wing. “Are you satisfied then?”

“Yeah I guess. How long have they been drinking?” Steel Wing asked exiting the building.

“About an hour after we moved them in there, and the two mares went to sleep in the back room.”

“When had the filly started drinking?”

“That, I don’t know.”

----

Steel Wing was led back to the entrance of the armory, only after complaining about not having eaten since yesterday. It was a bit past noon when they returned.

“Alright,” Fairbreeze addressed the other Steel Rangers present. “Nopony goes in or out until I get back, understood?”

“Sir!” They all shouted in unison.

“Good. Rookie?”

“Yes sir?” The filly Steel Wing had stared into submission earlier responded energetically.

“You’re with me, you need as much experience as you can get.”

“Yes sir.” Her excitement dropped a little at being told she wasn’t that great. It wasn’t a direct statement but she got the message anyways.

“Lead the way pegasus.” The paladin commanded.

“By your orders sir!” He snapped off the most mocking salute he possibly could and descended the stairs. Two Steel Rangers in tow.

“So,” Steel Wing attempted to start up a conversation. “What’s the rookie’s name?” silence Steel Wing looked back and saw that the rookie was silently asking permission to answer the question.

Fairbreeze nodded, “Talking can’t hurt rookie.” Steel Wing really liked this particular Steel Ranger.

“I am Initiate Red Berry.”

“Steel Wing, nice to meet you.” Steel Wing turned around to shake her hoof. It was unnecessary and perhaps a bad idea but he wanted to test just how badly his glare still affected her. When he did her mounted energy rifle suddenly warmed up and Steel Wing could tell she was more than ready to fire.

Very slowly under the gaze of a well maintained energy weapon he grabbed her foreleg with both of his and shook it gently, “This is what we in the Equestrian Wasteland Call a greeting.” His tone was mocking, and Steel Wing was fairly sure there were embarrassed eyes behind that visor as her weapon powered down.

Fairbreeze simply chuckled and they continued on.

As they went through the dusty halls Steel Wing pointed out things he thought were interesting. Naming off labs he had bothered to read on his first trip. A thought crossed his mind as he saw the megaspell chamber coming up.

He stopped and turned to them and in his best tour guide voice said, “And this is where the glowing shell of a half finished Balefire Bomb is being kept. Don’t stand too close to the door filly and gentlecolt it’s radioactive.”

Red Berry was speechless, Fairbreeze was not, “There’s a what in there?!?” He shouted backing away from the door.

“I have no idea.” Steel Wing said with a laugh. “I never bothered going in there. Eh, good times.”

Steel Wing walked closer to the door and checked his Pip-buck. The Geiger counter was mercifully silent. “You know there probably isn’t anything in there.” He looked at the two moving sets of armor. “Mind if I take a peek?” He asked already moving towards the door.

“Probably could hurt, but if there is something dangerous in there it should be taken care of first and foremost.” That was Fairbreeze’s way of saying ‘Do it and I’ll watch.’

Steel Wing tried the door and spotted the card slot. He wasn’t about to give up the existence his gold banded treasure to techno hoarders. “Can you turn around for a second I need to open this.”

Steel Wing imagined a envisioned a raised eyebrow on the helmet. “You’re joking right?”

“Hey you have my friends at gunpoint I’m not going to do anything stupid. I just don’t like it when ponies watch me work, it makes me nervous.” Fairbreeze bought it and motioned for Red Berry to turn around. He did the same. Steel Wing began humming as he retrieved the card from his bag making sounds like he was retrieving multiple other items. He inserted the card pulled it out and quickly replaced it in his bag just as the door beeped and opened.

“Done.” He chimed looking back at the Steel Ranger pair. He smiled mischievously at them, stopping when he noticed they were looking very far past him into the room.

Sitting at the bottom of a terraced ritual chamber were five stubby barrel shaped objects sitting in a row. They were glowing with pulsating green gold light. Steel Wing nearly shat on the spot.

“Balefire bombs?” He asked his throat suddenly dry.

After a few intense moments of silence Fairbreeze said simply, “Yeah.”

The fact that his Pip-buck still wasn’t clicking meant that these were complete and not leaking. All three of them took little comfort in the fact that the room wasn’t horribly irradiated. Steel Wing stepped back and closed the door.

The wasteland hardened pegasus now felt very alone, since the helmets of their power armor prevented Steel Wing from knowing if his two companions were as shaken as he was.

“Five Balefire bombs?” He asked again seeking numerical confirmation.

“Yeah.” Fairbreeze confirmed.

“Do you Steel Rangers have a way to disarm them?”

After a moment’s hesitation Fairbreeze responded, “We will move them to a secure storage facility where-” Steel Wing stopped him with a raised hoof.

“No!” The pegasus asserted.

“No?” Fairbreeze echoed in astonishment. “Look, friend, I don’t hate you but you are in no position to give me any new orders. I already have my own orders and I will follow them.”

“I’m sorry,” Steel Wing retorted, “But I’m not going to give a bunch of metal clad, technology hoarding, murderers, five Balefire bombs in the off chance your next fifty elder will all not become megalomaniacs. Just- No!”

“The Steel Rangers are not murderers,” Fairbreeze challenged, “We are charged with the duty of preserving technology from the past. Don’t try to-” Steel Wing cut him off again.

“I’ve heard that shit before.” Both Steel Rangers saw a tremor pass through the large pegasus’ body. “What about a colt who lost his foreleg because he didn’t’ want a Steel Ranger to have a family heirloom? What about him!?”

Steel Wing was furiously shaking now, to the point that little Red Berry was using her superior as a bulwark against the wave of rage.

Fairbreeze was silent, allowing the enraged pegasus to calm down some. When Steel Wing’s breathing returned to normal the paladin spoke in a voice that said he was unsure of his own words, “I cannot speak for the actions of all Steel Rangers, but we are not murderers.”

“I know you, somepony I do like, can’t speak for all of your order. That is exactly why I can’t let any of you take those bombs.” Steel Wing had ceased shaking and now maintained an even gaze. He coughed lightly to clear is throat.

Fairbreeze, with sincere reluctance, trained all of his weapons on Steel Wing. “Move along, you have a job to do and so do I.” The sorrow in his voice was clear.

Steel Wing was rendered speechless, His mouth opened and produced a choked squeak in protest, before he turned and continued walking.

Steel Wing couldn’t bring himself to hate Fairbreeze, but he’d be impaled on Celestia’s horn and taken to the sun before he’d let the Steel Ranger’s get their hooves on those bombs.

Minutes after the standoff the dumbfounded pegasus found his voice again. He asked, “What are you Steel Ranger’s doing here anyways?”

“We’re here to ensure nopony else takes these weapons and uses them to start a war. Gangs of raiders from Mexicolt City all the way up to Manehattan are on their way here for a chance to loot the armory. We can’t let that happen.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” Steel Wing said curtly.

----

Ten feet from the door to the Securitron room Steel Wing hatched a brilliant plan.

Before going in he said, “Wait a second.” He dashed into the room without waiting for a response. He quickly retrieved the gold master card from his bag and said, “Alright come in.” He would have smiled if he hadn’t been terrified of the consequences of dropping the card.

The Steel Rangers had started chasing him in as soon as he’d bolted. The caught up with him quickly as the Securitron behemoth rolled to a stop a yard and a half in front of Steel Wing.

A breathless whimper came from Red Berry’s helmet as the robot spoke.

b] PLEASE REMAIN STILL WHILE I SCAN FOR VALID IDENTIFICATION. The green scanning laser passed over the three of them. IDENTIFICATION RECOGNIZED.

GOOD DAY MR. STAPLES. YOUR LAST VISIT WAS APPROXIMATELY NINE HOURS AGO. The robot made a sound it hadn’t previously. Its weapons did not power down. TWO LIVING ENTITIES DETECTED. DO YOU HAVE GUESTS?

“Please wait a moment.” Steel Wing said, hoping the talking tank took requests.

WAITING.

Steel Wing smiled as he turned back around. “So Fairbreeze, what do you think of this one security robot? Impressive wouldn’t you say?”

“One. In addition to four others.” He nodded, “Fair enough. I hope you don’t plan on having me killed, my men are under strict orders not to let anypony else but me in or out.”

“Exactly.” Steel Wing’s smile shifted to a devilish grin. “You are going to go back and release my friends. Then you are going to pack up and leave. If you touch the door to the megaspell chamber I’ll personally end you and your soldiers.” He then shrugged his expression changed completely, to relaxed and casual. “Or you can come back and try to force your way in here, your choice.”

“Very well then we will be leaving.” Fairbeeze nudged his subordinate to get her moving. Steel Wing stopped them.

“She stays, as collateral.” In the interest of preserving his grim demeanor in the eyes of Initiate Red Berry, Steel Wing licked his lips maliciously and start at her.

“W-what are you going to do to me?” She whimpered.

“Whatever I damn well ple-”

“Nothing if he wants his friends to remain unharmed.” Paladin Fairbreeze asserted.

“I had no intention of harming her.” Steel Wing assured.

“Between you and I, never did I want it to come to this.” Fairbreeze said with a heavy sigh.

“But somewhere deep down, you knew it would. Right?”

“Yeah.” Fairbreeze finished turning and trotting out of the room.

“Sir please don’t.” The terrified initiate begged.

“Quiet, this is an experience, same as any other. You’ll be fine, so stay put until this is resolved.”

“Yes, sir.” She said sullenly. Red Berry looked towards Steel Wing.

Steel Wing decided to give her some peace of mind for the time being. Dropping his malicious mask he said, “You’ll be fine.” The reassuring tone almost felt like magic on the filly’s panicked mind.

“O-okay.” She said sitting down.

Turning back to the waiting Securitron Steel Wing said, “I have one guest.”

ONE GUEST RECOGNIZED. SCANNING FOR ADDITIONAL LIVING ENTITIES. SCANNING FOR ZEBRA STEALTH SPELLS. Followed by a few moments of silence, NO INTRUDERS DETECTED. HAVE A GOOD DAY SIR.

Finishing its task it wheeled back to the center of the room and was silent.

The silence of the room was heavy and uncomfortable, but it did give Steel Wing some time to think about the situation closing in around him.

On the one hoof, letting raiders or some other group of slavers take anything from this place would be horribly irresponsible; on the other he didn’t trust the Steel Rangers to do anything at all with these weapons, much less anything positive. The bombs were a whole other issue. He hardly trusted himself to know what to do with five active barrels of genocide so how could he expect anypony else to?

Steel Wing was hit by a strange sudden burst of energy that shot through his body and mind. His wings fluttered some catching the attention of the Steel Ranger.

Steel Wing’s mind was skipping far over the present as he thought again what the Enclave’s strategy actually was.

“Destroying a powerful faction that actually threatened airships.” He started aloud. “With rumors they knew would spread throughout the wasteland like wild fire that promised enough weaponry to supply an army, they could...” Steel Wing was wide eyed and hyperventilating from the excess energy electrifying his body and from the realization of what the Enclave planned, something he didn’t want to think much less say out loud.

A small voice brought the disturbed pegasus out of his dream state.

“Are you okay?” Red Berry’s voice was barely a whisper.

“I - No I’m not,” He began, “I know why the Enclave left this place unlooted."

“Why?” She pushed her fear of this particular pegasus being replaced by horror of an entire army of pegasai coming from above.

“They,” Steel Wing pointed up for emphasis, “The Enclave pegasai, who are a part of Operation: Black Thunder, want everypony down here to kill each other. They want us to destroy ourselves so all they would have to do is clean up whatever remains. Giving us the weapons to blow ourselves up means getting rid of many things that could offer resistance when they actually come down and attack.” He shuddered as he finally said it out loud.

“That’s what we are trying to prevent.” Red Berry said, evidently ignorant of how wars worked.

“What part of everypony don’t you get? All the Steel Rangers did was get here first, but you’re going to be fighting off bands of raiders, slavers, and the more bold scavengers. There will be loss from all involved including you.”

Silent understanding passed between them.

“So we’re doing exactly what the Enclave knew we would do? And we just did it faster than everypony else?” She summarized.

“Yes, that is exactly what you’re doing. And I’ll admit I’m not doing much to help I just wanted to get these out of here if they did exist. Of course I was completely ignorant of just how much I was trying to move.”

There was silence for a moment before Red Berry spoke again.

“Are we murderers?” She asked tentatively.

“Take off your helmet and ask me again.” Steel Wing responded, his tone leaving no room to question if he was joking. He wasn’t.

Slowly Red Berry unlocked her helmet and pulled it off.

She was a light purple with an untamed dark red mane that had been partially braided, her eyes were a deep amber. The braids hung off to one side and had been tied to her chin by a hair band. The rest of her mane was a messy curly fro.

With a slight blush she said, “It was really early when we moved out. I didn’t have time to finish.”

Steel Wing looked kindly upon her, letting her appearance have no impact on their conversation. She saw this and her blush faded.

Red Berry looked nervously down at her hooves, “Are we-”

“In the eyes please.” Steel Wing said with authority still managing a delicate tone.

With a small whimper she raised her head to meet his eyes. Amber orbs were locked in his blue gaze.

“Are we murders?” She asked in fear of the answer.

Now that he could see her innocent unbroken eyes he could decide for himself what the answer to the question was.

“You are,” He began slowly, “A good plan tainted by bad ideas.” He wasn’t finished but waited for his response to sink in. Red Berry nodded in acceptance so he continued, “With so many great ideas it seems impossible that a few bad thoughts could mean anything, but they do and they stand out.”

“Oh, so what should we do?” The inexperienced Steel Ranger had just switched leaders in her head.

“Not for me to say I’m afraid.” Steel Wing looked over her sadly. “I wish I could do something. Even if Fairbreeze is by far the most reasonable Steel Ranger I have ever met, I can’t ask him to betray his oath. If he did, that would be asking a dozen or so under his command to do the same. Just like me he couldn’t ask them to do that.” He fell silent for a moment, “And that is the main reason we’ve ended up in a hostage situation.”

The reminder of her current status as “hostage” didn’t do much to next words. Perking up she asked, “We have a common enemy right?”

“Well I’d hope the Steel Rangers weren’t on the side of raiders and slavers.” Steel Wing said flatly.

“No.” She returned, mimicking his tone. “The enclave. They want us all to die to make their job easier right? That’s why they left the weapons here . What if we worked with you to move these weapons someplace else before the raiders and slavers get here and start doing what the Enclave wants?”

Steel Wing rubbed his chin. He had been thinking along those lines but hadn’t thought of a way to get the Steel Rangers to cooperate. “Fairbreeze might go for that. If you’d be willing to talk to him and inform him of the Enclave’s intentions it could work, for now.”

“Why can’t you tell him?” Red Berry asked skeptically.

“Well, I probably pissed him off by taking you hostage. I don’t think he wants to listen to me all that much.” The “funny” pegasus feigned a thoughtful look, hoof on chin.

“He does like you, you know that right?”

Steel Wing pretended to be surprised. He smiled at himself and said, “Yeah but you can still be pretty pissed with somepony you like.”

“Well, I’ll try.” The pink filly returned a smile of her own. Her teeth, Steel Wing noticed, were incredibly clean; at least they were compared to any other set of teeth he’d seen since being kicked out of the Enclave.

He decided to let that slip by for a later conversation. Staying on topic Steel Wing asked, “So how exactly did you Steel Rangers plan on moving all the equipment down here?”

“We brought four or five wagons to haul it all.” Red Berry replied dismissively, she was completely ignorant of the actual size of “all.”

Steel Wing coughed awkwardly to bring her attention to how little she knew of the situation at hoof.

“You should probably come see.” He said motioning for her to follow.

Steel Wing took the now extremely curious filly to the four door room and with an outstretched hoof invited her to open the crosshair door.

Steel Wing watched smugly when she opened the door and immediately went slack-jawed. His smile faded when he remembered how his body had reacted. He wondered if the armored filly was feeling something similar. His thoughts wondered a moment while he stared at her metal covered flank. The pegasus stallion was instantly glad he hadn’t been wearing such confining armor when he first saw the room.

“We need more wagons.” She said at length, breathlessly. Taking a sharp inhale Red Berry began to cough, having actually forgotten to breathe after opening the door.

Without missing a beat Steel Wing said, “Takes your breath away doesn’t it?” He grinned widely. She shot him a dirty look in response before a smile crept onto her face.

“Alright so we need to think of something more than a few wagons. What’s in that laser room?” She pointed a hoof at the green sign.

Steel Wing shrugged, “Iunno.” He intoned, “High intensity lasers?”

“Or, or-” She said in an equally sarcastic tone, “It’s energy weapons and you’re being a smartass.”

Steel Wing chuckled at her rebuttal. At least she’d gotten over being a hostage fairly well.

“Let’s find out then shall we?” Steel Wing moved over to the door. He didn’t know what to expect. The distinct lack of energy weapons in the first room gave him the impression this is where they’d be.

Steel Wing pushed the handle on the door, he did it slowly to hide his own excitement. As the door swung open Red Berry took a spot next to Steel Wing. The inexperienced filly’s jaw hit the floor quite literally, as did the rest of her body. Her legs had given out upon seeing the contents of the room.

Steel Wing would have joined her on the floor in order to hide his mild erection, in the far back of his mind he was very disappointed in himself. Any dissenting thoughts were ignored while his brain went dancing down the center aisle.

They both realized in unison that the little squiggle above the door did absolutely no justice to what the room actually contained.

At the front of the room sitting uniformly in preservation units, across from each other down the aisle were fifteen Steel Ranger and fifteen pegasus’ suits of power armor. Each suit had two standard issue beam rifles, all of them were in pristine factory new condition.

Farther back, in addition to the armor at the front, were the rows upon rows weapons like the first room. The main difference being these were energy weapons.

A startled yelp form below brought Steel Wing out of his reverie this time. He looked down and saw a pink filly with violent red cheeks, covering her eyes with one leg and holding in some sort of vocalization in with the other.

The heat from his groin told him all he needed to know. Steel Wing quickly turned his back to her. He coughed and said, “Really sorry you had to see that.”

He heard her standing up behind him. “That was your- uh... Thingy right?”

“Never seen one before?” The conversation was helping the excited stallion contain himself.

“Well no, I have before.” Her tone made it clear where her thoughts were going. “I just- You’re bigger than most I’ve-” Her eyes went wide and she flailed her forelegs in an attempt to distract Steel Wing from what she’d almost said. The effect was lost on the pegasus’ turned back. “You are a larger pony than most. Stallions and mares both!”

The conversation had stopped being so helpful at the point where she’d let him fill in the blanks of her compliment. It was causing a very unhelpful swelling of his pride, as well as other places.

“Could you not talk for a few moments?” Steel Wing said pressing his forehead against the wall.

“Sorry.” She said before going silent.

Steel Wing started thinking of things that would turn him off.

Killing raiders? He started small, Justified and give me a chance to fight. Too small. Damn. Sex with Corona? He pictured being on top of her lithe athletic form.

“Oh come on!” He shouted down at “himself.” “She’s the wrong species!”

“Are you alright?” Red Berry tried to move next to him. She was slid back by one hoof. The startled filly let out a small squeak.

That was kind of cute.

“Please be quiet.” He begged starting to bang his head against the wall

Corona! No. Those talons! YES! Steel Wing’s body shuddered involuntarily.

He glared down at “himself” as he imagined what they could do to his exposed soft-spot. Steel Wing sighed in relief as he felt himself calming down.

He cleared his throat again and said, “Alright you can talk again.”

“I could have help.” She offered quietly.

Before fully considering the statement Steel Wing simply said, “Nope.”

“But I could have.” She asserted.

“Physically capable, yes. Nope.” She shrugged and Steel Wing smiled. He was happy they were back on the same page.

“So what’s in the third room?” Red Berry had said exactly what Steel Wing was thinking.

He looked at the picture of the tracks thoughtfully. “Tanks and more tanks?” He was being semi-serious.but the young filly took it as another joke.

“Sure sky tanks too right?” With a roll of her eyes she went over and opened the final door. As the lights came on inside she fell silent for a long moment. Then suddenly with a voice Steel Wing didn’t know she had. “Is that a fucking sky tank?!”

Talons. Steel Wing thought before walking next to the loud filly.

Red Berry had snapped her helmet back on and was muttering to herself.

Damn that is a sky tank. Steel Wing mentally confirmed at about the same time Red Berry did.

“That’s a sky tank.” She said flatly. The squat turtle-shaped hunk of metal that didn’t look like it had any right to fly was right there in front of them, as well as several other military vehicles.

This last room was an oversized garage with a sky and ground tank and a couple magically powered carts. It also had several commercial sized armored passenger sky wagons. They had been outfitted with mounted turrets.

This room also managed to answer a question Steel Wing hadn’t even thought to ask.

The answer was, “The huge lift to the surface.” The question was “How would somepony go about moving all of this in a timely manner.

“I think we may have found a way to move ‘all’ of the weapons.” Steel Wing said with a Talons. He coughed and began to inspect the vehicles.

Sitting for two hundred years hadn’t done any favors for the exterior of the vehicles. The internal components surrounding and connected to their power sources were in good shape, but the moving parts of most of them needed cleaning and grease as well as somepony to pull them. Thankfully they were in a garage so Steel Wing, having nothing better to do, got to work on one of the armored wagons.

“We aren’t enemies right?” Red Berry asked hopefully.

“No we’re two groups with a common enemy and nothing more.”

“Oh.” She sounded disappointed.

“You want me to be friends with the Steel Rangers?”

“Yeah sort of.” She sat down next to his lower half, the rest of which was under the wagon.

“I like you, I like Paladin Fairbreeze.” She perked up, “I can’t know all of the Mexicolt Steel Rangers, and so until they, as a group, show that they can be a positive part of the nightmarish hellscape that is our world I can’t..” He slid out to look at her, “It’s one of the few things in my life that I consider black and white. I don’t blame you. I don’t blame you I blame your leadership. The Steel Rangers would be a great ally to have, but not until they decide to be better ponies.”

Her eyes were sad but understanding.

She watched him work in silence and occasionally fetched him tools. The silence between them was now a much more comfortable and much less awkward one. The notion of being a hostage was completely lost to Red Berry’s mind.

----

Steel Wing’s maintenance on the first vehicle was done after an half-hour.

“It should move now.” Steel Wing stated proudly. “Want to try it?” He offered jokingly looking to Red Berry.

“I guess, can you do it by yourself?” She said walking around and climbing into the back.

“I was asking if you wanted to try pulling it.” Steel Wing gave her a quizzical look.

“Oh, that’s not what I thought you meant.” The armored filly looked a little let-down.

“What did you think I meant.”

“I, uh- Thought you were going to give me a wagon ride.” Steel Wing only responded with a blank stare. “That was a silly assumption wasn’t it?”

Steel Wing was far far away in a lush field that a stallion was blazing through hauling a wagon with a filly shrieking at the top of her lungs demanding more speed.

“No,” Steel Wing said absentmindedly. “It’s so beautiful.” He felt a warm fuzzy feeling spread through his body as he continued watching that father and his foal.

Before long he began to take notice of exactly where that feeling was coming from, that deep hole that connected him to the Nightmare was overflowing with a warm joyous feeling. Steel Wing was visibly surprised when he realized that something other than a cold emptiness could come from the moon. His shocked expression confused poor Red Berry to no end. Given his last dreamy statement and his facial expression made her think he’d simply lost his mind.

Carefully she moved next to him and reached out with an armored hoof to tap him on the head. Steel Wing reacted by trying to focus on her, his reaction proved to Red Berry that he wasn’t broken.

“What’s beautiful?” She asked trying to bring him all the way back.

“Some time two hundred years ago when a father could pull his foal on a wagon, without worrying if something was going to murder the both of them.”

He smiled sadly at her as the room reasserted itself around him until he was once again back in the Equestrian Wasteland.

“My father did that for me a few times.” Steel Wing’s eyes expressed his jealousy. “He only did it a few times until Elder Snap Bark caught us. He almost got into a lot of trouble but he promised the elder that I would be trained as a Steel Ranger so he didn’t get punished.”

“Your father promised you would be trained as a Steel Ranger? I thought you were born into being a Steel Ranger.” Steel Wing was surprised to learn anything new about the Steel Rangers. Not that he’d ever cared to know much more so it wasn’t exactly fair for him to think he knew everything about them.

“Well my mother wasn’t a Steel Ranger, but the elder allowed her to stay with my father in our stronghold. Our ranks were beginning to thin so the elder thought that letting my mother stay would convince my dad to make me become one. When things didn’t work out that way he started looking for any way to force him to. The day he caught us he found one.” The sad tale was overpowered by the happy memories of the time spent with her father. Red Berry’s smile did not fade.

“Sounds like your father wanted to give you the best life he could out here. I’d like to meet him some time.” As the words left his mouth the smile on the pink filly’s face foretold that he would soon be made an ass of.

“You already have.”

Steel Wing facehoofed. “So I foal napped his daughter in front of him and now I want to try negotiating with him? Perfect!”

She giggled as his revelation took hold.

Before long Steel Wing began to notice the warm fuzzy feeling from the Nightmare was going into the uncomfortably hot zone. Voices began to pour from every corner of his consciousness as well flashes of couples engaging in sexual acts beneath the night sky. Steel Wing began running around the room trying to find anything to cool himself off with. He felt heat bearing down on him like the sun was coming after him with a vengeance.

Doing the only other thing he could think of he stopped mid gallop and braced himself mentally and physically.

At the top of his lungs he shouted, “NIGHTMARE!”

At the same time NIGHTMARE thundered through what little remained of his own thoughts.

Red Berry could only look on fearfully as she watched the scene play out.

Relief came flooding into his body in the form of all of the heat being placed with a familiar cold.

The nightmare’s voice was in his head in an instant. Forgive me please. I was-

Steel Wing smiled with a grim satisfaction when he found he could turn off her voice in his mind.

“What the hell was that?” He panted. Red Berry was about to answer his question but he raised a hoof to silence her.

I was dreaming. No, that isn’t the right word. Thinking perhaps, remembering the past. Yes I was looking back on all I have witnessed and I lost my ability to keep my magic from pouring into your soul. Please forgive me.

Again the simple fact that one of the most powerful things that he knew of was begging him for anything made him pause for thought. Steel Wing remembered exactly what was at stake for her based upon his will.

With a drawn out sigh he said, “You need to work on keeping that in check. The next time it happens you are going to owe me.”

We find this to be just. The Nightmare regained the composure in her voice only, if they had been face to face she would have still looked quite rattled.

“Right, now that that’s settled.” Steel Wing stood up straight trying to act like nothing had happened.

Red Berry wasn’t about to ignore what she’d just witnessed and gave Steel Wing a stern look through her helmet. He got the message.

“I’m possessed, what about it?” He tried to sound defensive.

“You’re possessed by nightmares?” She raised an eyebrow which Steel Wing missed due to the helmet.

“Well one Nightmare, technically.” He corrected.

“What?”

“Nightmare Moon.” Steel Wing finally surrendered to her curiosity.

The suit of power armor was silent for a long time. “You mean the evil spirit that was banished by the Elements of Harmony over two hundred years ago? The one that possessed Princess Luna and allowed her to come back after her thousand year imprisonment? That Nightmare Moon?” Her tone of voice suggested complete and total disbelief.

“Well Princess Luna let Nightmare Moon escape, but otherwise, yeah pretty much.” Steel Wing managed to act as nonchalant as possible.

“So you are knowingly letting her possess you?”

“Not really no. She can contact me and I somehow can contact her. At this point in time I haven’t let her into my body.”

“You don’t find that troubling at all?”

“Well not really since she actually wants my cooperation. She’s been willing to beg for it.”

“I don’t know, that just doesn’t sound right to me.” Red Berry shook her head slowly.

“Fair enough but I don’t know how to get rid of it, so I might as well accept it.” Steel Wing had wanted that to be the final word on the issue but a thought made him continue, “I’ve explained more to you about this than I have to my friends. I should fix that.”

“Do they know at all?”

“They know I have some sort of magical issues and that’s about it.”

Red Berry gave Steel Wing a “needs work” look. Steel Wing just nodded.

The booming voice of the Securitron behemoth ended the conversation. Somepony was standing in a room full of overkill without proper identification.

Steel Wing bolted out of the garage and galloped for the Securitron room.

As soon as Steel Wing made it into the room he wanted to stop and stare, the direness of the situation made him act. Fairbreeze had returned with Corona. As the Securitron began counting down the seconds they had left to leave the area Fairbreeze had begun to back away from Corona. The somewhat unbalanced griffon had decided to accept the massive robot’s challenge. At twenty seconds left she was checking her weapons and limbering up for the fight. Steel Wing very desperately wanted to watch her try to survive versus five Securitrons and five energy turrets with an unknown amount of firepower. Steel Wing guessed it was a lot since he hadn’t seen them fire yet.

He quickly retrieved the gold card and shouted, “Stand down!”

The Securitron behemoth’s top half swiveled around and it scanned over Steel Wing.

VALID IDENTIFICATION RECOGNIZED. STANDING DOWN. Steel Wing breathed a sigh of relief feeling very glad somepony had a mind to program these robots to accept commands.

“Wow, you have your own high end security robots? You own Tenpony Tower too?” Corona snarked.

“Yeah, you’re welcome.” Steel Wing bit back.

Once the Securitron had gone back to its place Fairbreeze came back in.

“So how does this work, we just walk out of here together and go our separate ways?” Fairbreeze said gruffly.

“Where are Autumn Heart and the slaves- er... Ex-slaves?”

“They’re safe.” Corona assured.

“Alright then I guess-” Steel Wing wasn’t sure what he was about to say but the timid voice of Red Berry came from behind him and cut him off.

“Um, Paladin Fairbreeze?” She said walking up behind Steel Wing.

“Yes?” He responded inviting her to continue.

“I- Steel Wing needs our help and it would be in our best interest as well as that of all of Mexicolt if we were to lend him a hoof.”

“Is that so?” Fairbreeze turned his head to stare at Steel Wing.

“That about covers it yes.” Steel Wing confirmed, “You have several large wagons and I have found a few serviceable transports. We’ll need yours and mine to get all of this armory moved before the raiders, slavers and whatever else make it here and trap us into defending this place. Despite the issues between us, neither one of us wants to lose any of our friends or allies.”

“What about the Enclave’s plans?” Red Berry inquired putting Steel Wing on the spot.

Steel Wing was not to be cornered and said, “Details! Albeit important details but we should stay focused on the here and now. The here and now is getting all of this equipment moved before we get stuck fighting over it.” With a sigh he looked back to Fairbreeze who was being rather quiet. “Deal?” Steel Wing extended a hoof towards the contemplative Steel Ranger.

All eyes in the room were focused on the expectant hoof. After what felt like an eternity Paladin Fairbreeze raised his hoof slowly. He brought it up to Steel Wing’s own waiting hoof, and batted it out of the air.

“Steel Rangers don’t make deals with civilians.” Even behind the helmet Red Berry’s shock was clear. Corona was surprised, and Steel Wing was hurt. It wasn’t a physical pain but the feeling provoked from Fairbreeze’s action was a very real kind of hurt.

“We are allowed to use our best judgment when giving or receiving aid. It is a part of our charter for when we are dealing with anyone who isn’t a Steel Ranger.”

Fairbreeze quickly removed his helmet revealing a wide grin that dominated his face. “I hope you’ve learned something about being a smart ass around me.”

Steel Wing was speechless. He simply stared in awe of how well the pure white stallion with a buzzed blue mane had pulled off a joke at his expense. He hung his head recognizing that he had it coming.

“Yes sir, yes I have.” Steel Wing said and suppressed the urge to snap off a fake salute.

“Glad to hear it. We will have to talk about this Enclave thing soon but for now you are correct, we do need to move this soon. How much are we moving?” Fairbreeze replaced his helmet and walked around Steel Wing.

Red Berry turned to follow him and said, “It’s a lot sir.”

“I detect quite a bit of understatement initiate.” Fairbreeze growled. Red Berry didn’t understand that Fairbreeze was attempting a joke and thought she’d already managed to annoy her superior.

“I’m sorry sir. In weight there is easily over a ton of equipment.” Red Berry looked at the ground in shame.

Steel Wing looked at the Securitron behemoth for a moment. “I have three guests.”

THREE GUESTS RECOGNIZED... it went through its usual routine of scanning for other entities. All living creatures were already moving past it into the three door hallway.

Corona landed on the other side of Fairbreeze and whispered, “You do know your initiate thinks she already bugged you after being held hostage for two hours right?” Fairbreeze looked back at the sulking form of his metal clad companion.

“Red Berry.” He said in his superior tone.

The named pony stood up straight despite herself, “Yes sir?”

“Cheer up. That’s an order.”

“Uh- Yes sir!” She managed to feign enthusiasm while she worked through her confusion at his orders.

Steel Wing ushered them into the small room and invited Fairbreeze and Corona to take a look at the Crosshair room the same way he had for Red Berry.

Fairbreeze stepped into the door way as he was about to say something. What he saw caused him to choke on his words and cough loudly.

Corona reached out and grabbed at the air inside the room feeling satisfied having her hands anywhere near such an awesome sight.

“And that’s not even all of it.” Steel Wing said with a smile.

Fairbreeze looked back at him, “There’s more? How much more.”

“That in magical energy weapons, plus power armor.”

Corona began to giggle, “So much gun!”

“You said there were more transports down here right?” Fairbreeze asked after summarizing that “a lot” was both an understatement and right on at the same time.

“Yeah a few armored wagons, ground and sky wagons. A couple tanks too.”

“How do you propose we move all of this out of here in anything less than a week?” He turned to challenge Steel Wing’s plan.

Steel Wing just smiled back at him. “Vehicle lift to the surface.” Fairbreeze started as he choked on his comeback.

“Are you alright sir?” Red Berry was at his side very quickly.

“Uh, yes I just- Something flew down my throat.” The mighty paladin’s brain had evidently thrown out the skill of lying while trying to handle just how easy this was turning out to be. Steel Wing laughed at Fairbreeze’s weak attempt at lying. As the pegasus’ laughter filled his head Fairbreeze realized his mistake and facehoofed hard. His visor cracked but was instantly repaired.

“Did you get it out sir.” Red Berry was doing her best to hide a giggle, her best wasn’t nearly enough.

“Let’s get to work.” He said forcing the topic to drop. “Where is the lift and where does it go?” He asked walk up to Steel Wing.

Steel Wing pointed to the tank tracks door and said, “Don’t know where it goes, but it is a surface access lift so it can only be helpful.”

Fairbreeze walked into the garage without another word. He was out of sight but Steel Wing and Red Berry could here yet another surprised coughing fit.

“So he coughs like that when he’s caught off guard?” Red Berry asked.

“Looks that way.” Steel Wing agreed.

“This explains so much.” She said with a distant voice.

A half crazed laugh caught their attention. It mainly brought to Steel Wing’s attention that Corona was no longer with them.

Red Berry pointed to the arcanotech room, “That one.”

Steel Wing ran into the room and saw Corona flying about the top shelves of the weapons racks cradling the largest beam rifle Steel Wing didn’t think existed. It was easily as tall as she was when standing on her hind feet. It was a dull blue metal with a removable mount stand. It was meant to be used with power armor, but if somepony wanted to they could use it with their mouth. The entire barrel was the longest and most amazing part of it. The entire length of the barrel was a solid piece of ruby with arcane symbols carefully and uniformly etched into it all the way to the tip.

She landed next to Steel Wing and was positively beaming, “Someone was working on this and left it in a preservation unit when they left it. It was being customized and now it’s mine!” It was the same look she’d had after she decorated a tree with the entrails of a living pony. It was unnerving the way she held it like a baby. “Wanna touch it?” She held it out tantalizingly.

Steel Wing reached up to touch it and she pulled it away quickly. “I somehow knew you would do that.” He said flatly. “Tell you what since this is by far your favorite room you can start finding boxes to put these in so we can move them.”

“Deal.” She flew to the other end of the room and had a silent dilemma; to perform her task she would have to put down her massive new treasure. She disappeared into some part of the room and Steel Wing just assumed she would figure things out for herself.

The whole show made him smile as he left the room with Red Berry in toe. “Crazy bird.”

“She kind of is isn’t she.” Red Berry agreed. “That is one of your friends right?”

“Yes that is Corona. She’s the guard captain for Sky Fall.” Steel Wing was heading for the garage.

“She seems nice enough.”

“Well as long as the Steel Rangers decide to play nice, you will be able to hold on to that fantasy. I for one alright know how bad she can get.” Steel Wing verbally patted her on the head for being so innocent.

“Oh.” Red Berry could feel the verbal head pat.

Entering the garage they spotted Fairbreeze pulling a wagon onto the lift. If it weren’t for the power armor there would be absolutely no way he could have pulled the hunk of metal on wheels.

When he saw them enter he sighed, “Let's go see where this lets out, yes?”

“Sounds good to me.” Steel Wing said harnessing himself up and helping Fairbreeze pull the wagon the rest of the way.

“Initiate Red Berry, please activate the lift and wait for my return.” He looked over to where the ready and willing filly sat.

“Yes sir!” She said and moved as fast as equinely possible to start the lift.

It began to ascend and Steel Wing waved a goodbye to her. “Hey go help Corona with the packing, we need to get this done asap.” He called before they were plunged into the dim lighting of the surface lift’s shaft.

Steel Wing and Fairbreeze shared their first awkward silence.

“So your daughter is an odd filly.” Perfect Steel Wing thought to himself.

“She told you?” Fairbreeze said wearily.

“Not directly no. I picked up on it when she was talking about you let’s say.”

“Right, well, yes I suppose she is but I still-” He turned slowly towards Steel Wing. “What did you do to her?” His tone was not that of a friend or even a close acquaintance.

“I didn’t- What do you mean?” Steel Wing said defensively.

“Did you touch her?”

“Oh no of course not.” Steel Wing said honestly. When he thought of the little incident he had regarding his self control it caused his tone to reveal to Fairbreeze that he hadn’t asked the right question. Now he was angry.

“What. Did. You. Do. To. Her?” He moved closer to Steel Wing with a righteous anger building.

“Okay I did nothing to her I swear.” He was backed into a corner by the advancing and feral father.

“I believe you, now explain.” Fairbreeze demanded.

“You know how when you haven’t “gotten any” in a while and sometimes the weirdest things turn you on?”

“Not doing you any favors.” Fairbreeze warned. He had, to Steel Wing’s relief backed off some.

“Well the first door I opened on my first trip down here, I got an erection. Simple as that.” Steel Wing confessed.

“That has to do with my daughter how?”

“Well I only opened the one door. When Red Berry was with me we opened a second door and it happened again. She saw it, and I had to get myself back down with her present. It was awkward but nothing happened I promise. When it was all over she said something about how she could have helped me.”

Fairbreeze fell silent making Steel Wing nervous again. “Fillies. They don’t know how to walk away from a bucks private issues do they?” This was followed by a full bodied laughter coming from the metal suit.

“So, you and I are okay then?”

“I believe you and I trust you to use good judgment. You’re somepony who knows right from wrong so I won’t threaten you with the consequences of harming my daughter in any way.” He stepped back even more, “If she tries to come on to you or something, which let’s be honest is something that could easily happen, just ask her what her father would think. She hates disappointing me because she thinks she did something as a foal to make my life more difficult. She didn’t and I’ve tried to tell her that, but it motivates her to do better and I think she needs motivation.”

“Good parenting?”

“Something like that.” Fairbreeze said with a chuckle.

That’s my chuckle. Steel Wing thought but let it slide fairly easily.

A pneumatic hiss drew their attention up. Two metal plates were diverging just feet from their position. Heavily filtered moonlight came through the widening gap.

“Let’s hope it’s not too far away from the town.” Steel Wing said cryptically.

Dirt cascaded down on them as the two plates came to a halt. Fairbreeze was much better off in his armor than Steel Wing was.

As Steel Wing shook the dirt from his body he heard Fairbreeze nearly whine, “Really?”

“Really what? We’re really at Tenpony Tower?” Steel Wing said rubbing his eyes, which only helped to grind more dirt into it. The irritation didn’t stop him from taking a quick look around. They were still very much inside of the town of Armory. Not in a part Steel Wing recognized but a small blinking in his field of vision reminded him of his newly acquired Pip-buck. It placed a marker of a ways that looked like it was near the front gate.

“That way!” Steel Wing declared and got back into his harness.

----

Minutes of pulling later they began to recognize the area. Steel Wing no longer needed his Pip-buck as he led them to the front gate.

Three Steel Rangers trained their weapons on the approaching wagon but when they saw Fairbreeze they all stood down.

“Did everything go well sir?” A Steel Ranger approached attempting to glare at Steel Wing.

“Everything between Steel Wing and company and the Steel Rangers is resolved. Now we’re going to work together.”

“Sir?”

“Did I stutter?” Fairbreeze asked slipping out of his harness.

“No sir you didn’t. Can I ask why.”

“We face a crisis that a handful of Steel Rangers can’t take care of on their own. Steel Wing has chosen to cooperate with us as our goals coincide.” The finality of his tone made his subordinate stop his questioning. He went back to join the others.

Steel Wing was about to search for his companions when he felt a small tremor moving underneath him. Oh no.

A clawed hand jutted up from the ground under a Steel Ranger piercing his armor and driving through his hide into his belly. In the same instant a huge gout of flames flared up in the middle of the street revealing a slightly singed Flash Fire.

Panic took over Steel Wing’s head and before anything else could go wrong he charged into the unicorn filly and knocked her off her hooves.

“ STOP ‘ Steel Wing bellowed with a volume that a pony should not naturally be able to produce. All was “stopped” he had gained the attention of any and all things with the capacity to hear for at least a mile around. A second clawed hand dug a whole near the impaled Steel Ranger and Trapmaw’s head appeared.

“Steel Wing pony want to fight his own battles?” He offered as the Steel Ranger he was under whimpered and shuddered.

“No no I don’t there is no fighting here.” Steel Wing said moving over to Trapmaw’s exposed head.

“Steel Wing pony said he not like Steel Ranger ponies too. Steel Wing pony lied?” Trapmaw was already questioning Steel Wing’s integrity.

“No, I didn’t lie. I just today met some Steel Rangers that are not bad ponies.” Steel Wing wasn’t about to let this hellhound think he’d been lied to. “Also what is Flash Fire doing here?”

“It hurts.” The nearly gutted Steel Ranger moaned.

“Oh wow, um-” Steel Wing was at a loss for words. “You need to get your claws out of him without tearing him up.” Trapmaw looked at his occupied hand thoughtfully. “I really hope you have med-x running through that thing.” He said to the whimpering Steel Ranger.

“I do now.” He said weakly.

It was at this moment that Steel Wing realized all of the other Steel Rangers had weapons pointed in his direction. “You are friends with that beast?” Fairbreeze asked critically.

“Please don’t do this. He’s not that bad he was just looking out for me because he thought I was being held at gunpoint.”

“You were.” Trapmaw said as his claws slid out of the Steel Ranger’s belly. When the claws had come all the way out Trapmaw put his hand against the holes and checked several times to make sure entrails weren’t hanging out. When the armor repaired itself he gave stopped checking.

“I was. How long have you been here?” Steel Wing asked as the freed Steel Ranger collapsed from the pain.

“Magic fire pony and friend come for you. We let them pass like you say. Then Trapmaw remember you say pass safely so Trapmaw stop them and say that hellhounds make sure they make it. They both scream and hurt ears, but then we say again that we make sure they make it and they believe us. So me and friends follow underground and then big group of ponies charge horned ponies, so we kill large group like you ask us to make sure they pass safely. More are coming.”

Steel Wing took all this in and processed it much better than he usually did when he undertook the task of communicating with hellhounds.

“So a large band of hostile ponies attacked Flash Fire and Peaches so you killed them, but there are more coming. So you beat the other group of ponies here and saw that I was captured by Steel Rangers so you Flash Fire and-” He looked around and counted only one unicorn. “Where’s Peaches?”

Trapmaw smacked his face with his hand causing a few small cuts on his face. “She in tunnels still.”

“Oh no don’t worry about me I didn’t get hit by a charging boulder.” Flash Fire said recovering from Steel Wing’s tackle. All four legs were pointed heavenward as she watched the scene play out upside down.

“Sorry, I just didn’t need you cooking Steel Rangers inside their armor. We’re trying to help each other here. So you came here to tell me something?”

“Ahem.” Fairbreeze intoned.

“What?” Steel Wing said defensively.

“You allied yourself with hellhounds.” He stated instead of asking.

“I- Yes, yes I did. Does that bother you that I have succeeded in making friends with something the Steel Rangers have failed to do?”

“No, it’s not that. It’s just- Are they safe to be around?”

“If you have my hoof of approval they shouldn’t maul you or anything.” Steel Wing looked at the recovering Steel Ranger. “Well not again at least.”

A few of the other Steel Rangers had moved their fallen comrade away from the deadly predator. The rest still had weapons pointed at the only parts of Trapmaw that were visible.

Fairbreeze looked from Steel Wing to Trapmaw to the wounded soldier. “I still trust you. I trust your judgment but this is as far as I can extend my trust. If you’re wrong then there will be no more of this alliance.” Steel Wing nodded in understanding.

“I get Peachy pony.” Trapmaw went back underground.

Flash Fire got back up and stared at Steel Wing. The aforementioned pegasus was threatened by the very real possibility that she could set him on fire.

“Sorry about that.” He said inching out of her field of vision.

“It’s okay. It isn’t every day I have a stallion plowing into me like that.” As much as Steel Wing didn’t want her to even act like she was flirting with him he still laughed at the joke.

Foot Note Level Up!

Steel Wing - Level 11

Pip-buck Acquired - You are now the proud own of a Stable-Tec Pip-buck, use it well.

Quest Perk Added:

Lucky Buck - Someone or something is really watching out for you. You gain a permanent +1 bonus to your Luck.

Autumn Heart - Level 9

Corona (Griff) - Level 13

New Perk Added:

I Want That One (Prerequisite- Foal at Heart) - Your attention to things you may went leads you to some very interesting and very valuable discoveries. Your skill in barter is increased by 25 and when searching a room you have a higher chance of finding something rare.